Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Sunday, 26 February 2012

So we managed to sly into the quarry to film, but safety was obviously paramount, it was a windy day and standing over a good drop with two people who are petrified of heights.There are still one or two shots still to be filmed- we had to cut off short due to the fading light and absolute cold.Also cooked up a batch of fake blood to use in the coming shots, after all I'm sure you don't fall and land completely unharmed...To make the blood was fairly simple red food colouring and water- but then obviously that doesn't quite have the same thickness as blood so we added honey to give it that thickness. Overall a great session, but maybe not quite as much footage captured as I would have hoped for. Hence why we have another session planned for today.

Saturday, 18 February 2012

To put it simply Bradford is the perfect location for the music video- not only as a former industrial town itself (not in that sense!) but as a town with a clash of different and opposing idea's- the old Victorian style which clashes with the more modern aspects of the town in a whole host of different locations. Then there's the Bolton Wood quarry, where the final 'section' of the music video takes place. And various sections are filmed very close to it.

So here is a shot of the quarry from an angle similar to our closing shots of the main narrative, obviously very high up with a near panoramic view of Bradford, ideal for a closing location, with this it's a case of how we fit everything we want into the frame rather than what we don't want in the frame.

The location once again from a different angle, as you can see it lends itself to the look desolation and isolation, it looks quite far from locations nearby and generally a wide open space, now for obvious health and safety issues we can't film IN the quarry- which makes the ending problematic somewhat, as the final shots of the main narrative is a shot of the protagonist lying on the floor on the quarry, but luckily we can substitute here as the shot will be a close up/ extreme close up it makes it extremely easy to find an ideal location.

Friday, 10 February 2012

So with the snow thwarting yet another film shoot, this has meant that we now have to film all the footage we need on Sunday 12th February 2012. This means that we have a need to move fast to edit the footage, which means that we hope to have a new rough cut before 18th Feb so that we can do any urgent re-shoots in the following few days.
We're making strides with the mag ad however which gives us more time to spend on the digipak- which also hangs on using images from the performance aspect of the video.

In line with the updates to the video idea, the narrative has also evolved into something that will hinge itself onto the enigma, the mystery aspect. This means that it definitely will be very confusing on first viewing and intentionally so. To further this it'd we're using the editing software in the post production to create a heightened sense of enigma. The chief inspiration is Nine Inch Nails- Down In It.

The overall arch for the narrative is that one person (possibly the only person in the music video) has become paranoid that he's being watched, through the webcam which is where it all starts then escalates from that point and as the video progresses on. So that the protagonist becomes immersed in this paranoia of being watched and things become increasingly messy with regards to visual editing, more emphasis on the broken video filter. Which gives the video a degraded look to it, with more shots showing the viewer things that don't fit with established style of the video so one example would be the illuminate eye as seen in the sample footage, this is going to evolve throughout until we show select parts of the filming process (shots where the camera is intentionally visible to the viewer), which ties into what we hope will be a twist ending- shots of someone editing the music video and leaving the room with a cut to static ( hints of the eye again) as the music fades away. We hope that this would tie into the idea of the music video as a product, but once again is an ambiguous and enigmatic item to place at the end, it asks the question as to whether the protagonist was paranoid? As well as our preferred reading of the video as a product of the media, something created and artificial in nature.

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

The editing process on the video is one that's been through one, the sample footage measuring approx. 34 seconds.

The editing was more fast paced than before which meant that we had to cut 10 mins of solid footage into around 34 seconds. The pace was very fast which meant that we had some issues with the amount of footage recorded but obviously with more footage we can afford to do some longer takes. The screen of final cut (left) is a neat example of how we created the video footage effect, combined with total desaturation. Also notice the frame around the footage which we dragged out to tighten the framing on some shots where the framing would detract form the image. Overall to get the 34 seconds- the editing must have taken around 7 hours overall to generate the desired effect. Of course to create the sample footage we exaggerated the special effects somewhat so that the more FX side of the video is on display, in the final video we expect the effects to come in somewhat more gradually rather than seemingly random- and create a much more even balance between the FX and the pure video footage.

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Well like many, many things- it didn't go quite as planned. The filming had to be hugely cut down for what was originally planned and done over two days rather than one with nowhere near enough footage filmed. but with what we have I do think that we have enough to create another sample and thus give the audience a rough idea of where we're going next with the footage.

Thursday, 19 January 2012

The cover is stylised as to have the members of the Beatles as orange silhouettes coming from the title

love- which is surrounded by an orange outline. This gives it a comic book art style.

The background, made up of orange swirls and the generally textured look to the cover give it a very 'retro' feel which is appropriate for The Beatles. The warm colours are also indicative of the genre, the light colours would seem to signify psychedelic-rock.

Rear

The rear of the digipak is essentially the same kind of image only with more orange textures. Also all the copyright notices and credits appear here. Something to note is the lack of song titles on the rear. This wouldindicate that the band are fairly big and that the audience would know what to expect from the digipak

Here we have the track listing on the inlay

we have the track listing here too, which appears to be fairly extensive, we also have a continuation of the art style, only with the band members being much a much lighter shade- which contrasts with the second CD which features darker band members, but essentially the same image.

The second inlay appears to be essentially the same but only with slightly different textures and the CD cover, a

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

So the feedback we recived for our sample footage clearly indicated that there was an issue with using a young looking protagonist- it didn't fit in with the genre was one of the main issues raised. Obviously we're trying to cater to two different audiences with our video.A) Re-brand the NiN band to better fit with a modern audience (youth 15-24)B) Appealing to the older NiN audience- the established fan-basewho have been listening to NiN since the late 80's.

So to do this we thought that our casting had to be reviewed carefully- how we could get our casting to better reflect the video theme.

Checking through we've decided to cast my Uncle in the role....He's older and thus would appear better in the video- but not so old as to alienate the younger audiences.He suits the role too with Black hair and stubble- thus making him near perfect for the video.

Thursday, 5 January 2012

Tonight we are filming in two of our three locations; the school and around Ikley which would leave only Bradford to film over the weekend so that hopefully we can spend next week editing a first full rough cutof our music video and have it edited for the Friday in a fairly complete form.

UPDATE

Our casting update has meant that this has changed, along with some locations.Obviously this is a set back but we, as a group, think that this would greatly improve the quality of the video.

Mark Romanek has worked with Nine Inch Nails on two music videos, such as Closer & The Perfect Drug, both of which where high budget videos and Closer was one of the more prolific videos for Nine Inch Nails courting a fair amount of controversy because of the nudity and the depictions of a monkey on the cross (obviously relating to the religious connotations).Reznor was also asked to score his film The One Hour Photo however the studio (Fox) believed Reznor to be the wrong choice and subsequently decided that he was the wrong cho canned his soundtrack for the film.

He also directed the music video to Jonny Cash's music video to his cover of NiN-Hurt, so obviously he has a fair amount of history with the band.His music video for A Perfect Drug was very gothic with a blue tint to make it feel much darker visually colder too. The gothic one is something shared with the Closer video, both of which featuring abstract visuals, with Closers style helped via the 20's Film reel used for filming the video, giving it a more sepia feel.

The overall directing style seems very similar to that of Stanley Kubrick, with a strong focus on the surreal elements, I'd say especially with the

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Trent Reznor has been nominated for his second golden globe for his work on the soundtrack to the new The girl With The Dragon Tattoo.This is the second time that he's been nominated for the awards.On a slightly sadder note he's lost his Grammys but has said that he doesn't care about loosing them.

Thursday, 15 December 2011

The last 3 weeks we have been working hard on producing some sample footage for our video, we currently have 45 seconds of footage that was shot over 4 shooting sessions, two were at school, one by the railway bridge and one down at the industrial estate location.

The sample footage helped us get a better understanding of what our end product can/will look like and what effects looked good, what locations and camera angles were right, and even what wasn't so great.

The first time we showed our work to others was at the schools creative art's evening, this was an evening put on by school showcasing work from the media, drama and music department and was full of creative minds who could offer helpful feedback about our product, we were even lucky enough to have the headteacher view our work which was a great honour.

The feedback we got from creative arts evening:

People didn't really know what was going on, there wasnt any anchorage that gave the audience an idea of what was happening in the video and why and what our character was trying to escape from and what relevance did all the shots of Mac's and other miscellaneous objects have to do with this.

How we will change our product after the feedback:

We think the main reason people didn't know what was going on was because the footage we showed them was only 45 seconds long which really isn't that long to provide any real anchorage especially with our idea that 'Technology is Bad' it is hard to portray that in such a short clip so we think that we will just have to work on getting more footage and then getting more feedback to see whether with more time the audience got a better understanding of what was going on.

We also showed our work in our Media lesson which is full of young talented minds ready to make their break in the music video world, so is good to get other media students to give their creative opinions on our work.

Feedback we got:

Include more subliminal messages

Perhaps get the character to get on the train, this would give us scope to go to new locations

The fast pace editing was good gave an intense feel to the video

Good use of effects, thought that the Black and White effect worked well.

Expand locations to more urban areas such as Leeds and mainly Bradford.

How we plan to adapt to feedback:

Start location scouting around Leeds and Bradford, we already have one location in mind in Leeds and two of us being born and bred in Bradford have good local knowledge and and a few locations in mind for places in Bradford.

We need to think about good ways to include our illuminati symbolism

Feedback from our media teacher:

The scene when Ben walks backwards should be changed because it gave a comedy feel, which wasn't all what we were wanting.

Didn't think that Ben was right for the role.

How we are going to change:

We are going to edit out the backwards walking scene to make sure we have the correct intentions for our video.

We have started looking for different people to cast for our role instead of Ben.

Thursday, 8 December 2011

So far so good we have approx. 40 seconds of sample footage ready to be screened (almost) and so far we're just adding the finishing touches to the footage, making sure that what's on-screen is everything we want onscreen- that there isn't anything that we think would ruin the atmosphere of the video or that would damage it and break verisimilitude. Where we plan to go next is basically to screen it at the creative arts evening and see what feedback we can gain from that, which at this stage would be incredibly useful.
[DFT]

Monday, 5 December 2011

...have conducted an interview with Mr. Reznor today (5/12/11) with the chit-chat mainly focusing on his upcoming The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo film score although there where other small bits of information released, he is releasing a full length How To Destroy Angels album early next year (hopefully) and he let slip that he's been offered some live show's although he didn't go into much detail on the matter he did indicate he was still working it out.
But the real killer here is the news that in 2012 he'll be writing with a much more NiN orientated stuff...

Sunday, 4 December 2011

Artist: How to Destroy AngelsDirector: Rupert Sanders (Snow white & the huntsman)Year:2010Genre: POST- IndustrialAudience: 24-35 (15-24)(The video was only ever released online as such only those with a prior knowledge of Reznors work would have heard of the band)How to Destroy Angles (HTDA) is a group with Reznor, his wife Mariqueen Maandig & Atticus Ross, with a very electronic sound, one that differs from nine inch nails significantly and yet is another outpost for Reznor & Ross' dark electronic sounds.

Judging from the style of the video I'd say a HD camera was used, the clarity and camera work would seem to indicate this.It's a very narrative video, well not that much happens, the scene is one of a hotel murder, of a bride and groom I assume who've been killed on their wedding night, played by Mariqueen and Trent respectivly, whilst being watched by Atticus Ross and a blonde woman as a fire starts and engulfs the scene as Atticus and the woman watch on calmly.

appearing at 0:36-38, a reveal of what's in the
hotel room.

The first 7 seconds of the video feature a hallway shot, the number of doors and the tacky carpet signify a cheap american style motel, as does the window at the end of the hall, a small and cheap one with the curtains blowing. The camera work here is a slow zoom- tightly frames so that the walls just are in view.We then jump forwards with a swift cut to the window and a door slightly open at the side of the frame, indicating danger.A performance aspect is introduced through the corpse of the bride singing, something that becomes quite macabre as she begins to set alight and burn slowly. They've said the way that they've done this was to have her singing them impose her face onto a mannequin- although the effect isn't all that well done it certainly adds to the video and takes nothing away.What's interesting to note is the messing around of focus on the camera with the 'depths' changing so what was blurred becomes clear.The blood effect is used brilliantly in this video with the blood looking realistically dark and maybe ever so slightly desaturated.One example of a really well framed shot would be the one you see to your right. The lighting in the window is done so that it glows in ever so slightly, the curtains seem dirty, not overly so but enough to fit with the 'vibe' of the video. The bride laying against the bed, with the bed ever so slightly jutting in the right of the shot and behind her, the corpse of the groom, their attire a white, frilly dress and the grey well fitted suit would indicate a wedding. The lighting here is typical of the genre, dark and moody with heavy use of shadow.

Shot of a candle appearing at 0:48

The candle seems to be a common aspect, appearing at 0:48 seconds and staying onscreen for a good 2 seconds before vanishing, the candle blowing gently in the wind, the idea that something somewhere is causing a breeze which then lends itself to the aspect of intrusion, someone having come in and killed the occupants of the hotel room. It could also indicate a sense of fragility, the wax gently protecting the flame. It also shows that some amount of time has passed in the room seeing as though the wax has clearly been worn down, adding to the theme of decay that features in the video.

The sense of mystery continues in the video, with several shots focusing on the fingers, or the hands or someone smoking. Sometimes not even body parts but instead objects, gently spattered with blood to indicate that something violent has happened, such as at 0:53, we have a womans hand (painted black finger nails) with what looks to be a broken glass just out of reach and covered in blood- indicating a struggle and the closeness of the object showing that it was maybe a self defence wound, either way the violence of the video is pretty heavy and it becomes much worse when the bodies and the room begin to burn, with heavy use of special effects to show the lip syncing even as the body is burning, they used a mannequin to burn with a wig then superimposed Mariqueens face onto it to get the desired effect, i.e one to shock and disturb the viewer.Overall the video is one that seems to be much more modern that prior industrial videos and is clearly following a narrative and the editing clearly draws the viewer into the scene that's unfolding on screen.

Thursday, 24 November 2011

The Nine Inch Nails website has been updated(15/11/11) To include more information on the soundtrack to the Girl with The Dragon Tattoo- including album art and and record label, including Renzors own Null Corporation in America and Mute records internationally.

For the sample footage we've filmed the opening sequences of the song, with notes from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by David Fincher as key inspiration when editing. One pretty big challenge was filming enough footage to fill out the 30 seconds and keep the angles fresh and unique from one another and create something that's worth re-watching. So far that's the only real big issue to arise from filming the sample footage.